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Splashed by the saint : ritual reading and Islamic
sanctity in West Java
Julian Millie
Leiden : KITLV Press, 2009
ISBN: 9789067183383
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Book description
Sanctity is a concept recognized by Muslims throughout the
Islamic world, and often motivates observances with highly localized
characteristics. Julian Millie spent a year attending a supplication ritual
in which Muslims of West Java directed their prayers to Allah through ‘Abd
al-Qadir al-Jaelani (d. 1166). This man, whose tomb even today is a popular
pilgrimage site in Baghdad, is widely considered the most powerful
intercessor of all the saints of Islam.
The supplication takes the form of reading or singing the narrative proofs
of ‘Abd al-Qadir’s saintliness in a ritual context. The ritual has deep
roots in the Sundanese culture of West Java. The book captures the variety
of understandings that participants bring to the ritual when it is held in
various contexts, including Java’s largest Sufi order, religious schools and
private homes.
This first, book-length study of intercession through ritual reading in
Indonesia will be of interest to scholars of Indonesian religions, Sufism
and the anthropology of Islam. It expands our knowledge of Sufism and
sanctity, and seriously considers the liturgical forms of village Islam,
paying special attention to the use of Arabic supplications in localized
ritual practice.
About the author
Julian Millie (1967) is employed in the anthropology
section in School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts,
Monash University.
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